July12, 2010 – Mandeville, Jamaica…Antwayne Stewart and NigelCoke
TeamXormis of Northern Caribbean University (NCU) made Jamaica and the entireCaribbean proud, by winning the 2010 World Microsoft Imagine Cup award in thecategory of Interoperability.
Inwinning the award, the Adventist-owned and operated University team fromMandeville, Jamaica, beat Brazil and Indonesia in the finals held in Warsaw,Poland, on July 8, 2010. In the preliminary rounds, Team Xormis competed among 90competitors from around the world, before advancing to the finals.
“Thisphenomenal honor confirms NCU’s computer and information sciences program asthe finest in the region, and certainly on par with the best in the world,” saidDr. Herbert Thompson, president of NCU. “It also proves that Christianeducation can hold its own and be on par with any system of education in theworld,” I join the University family, Jamaica and the region in celebrating theachievement of our Imagine cup teams in Poland.”
Theteam is comprised of Dwayne Samuels, Markel Mairs, Shawn McLean and DerronBrown – all students of NCU’s Computer and Information Science department. In addition to each member receiving oneof the prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup gold trophies, the team also pocketed US$8,000.00in cash prize.
TheInteroperability award, was one of six categories of 2010 awards presented bysoftware giant Microsoft, in addition to five categories of 2010 winners.Interoperability is essentially utilizing various technologies such as Google,Microsoft, and Facebook, to create a unified solution.
“Weare extremely excited and overwhelmed with emotion about winning the firstplace for the 2010 Imagine Cup Interoperability Award,” shared an elated KenrieHylton, Chair of the Computer and Information Sciences department at NCU.” “Itfeels great to see that all the hard work and dedication that was put intodeveloping this project, has paid off. I am hoping that this can furtherinspire others to step up to the challenge and realize that with hard work anddetermination, they too can achieve and change the world.”
TeamXormis’s project, “eXtensible Opportunity and Resource Matching Information System,”is a matchmaker that couples significant and pervasive problems with theappropriate solution providers, by employing multiple technologies to connectpeople, data, or diverse systems in a new way. The Competition’s organizersnoted, that this year’s competition has “set a new bar” and has produced a hostof exceptional projects, which further underlined the quality of the Xormisproject.
Thompsonfurther emphasized that, “we hope that with all the negative challenges that wehave faced as a country, that this achievement is something that everyone willcelebrate and exclaim: ‘we are proud to be Jamaican! It is clear – If Jamaicanyoung people are given a chance and the tools with which to work, they canperform superbly at the highest level.”
Sincethe inception of the competition, eight years ago, NCU has been nationalchampions for the six times it has entered (2005 – 2010) and has been crownedregional champions on four occasions. In 2007 the NCU Imagine Cup Team ICAD,out-designed other competitors from across the globe and was placed third in the world at the finals inSouth Korea.
NCU’sother team, which advanced to the finals in Poland – Team Educ8 – were unsuccessful in their category.
TheMicrosoft Imagine Cup Competition, themed, “Imagine a world wheretechnology helps solve the toughest problems,” is the world’s premier studenttechnology competition sponsored by Microsoft, to provide students with aplatform to showcase their software development and technical skills, to theworld’s most challenging problems.
